Full Moon Swamp

FULL MOON SWAMP 1 It was Vincent's first day in Crimsonville, Kentucky. He had just moved into a new house on Crocodile Creek Lane. He had met all of the neighbors. It only took about three minutes. There was only two neighbors on his entire street, and neither of them would come to the door...although there were old beat up cars sitting in the driveway. Vincent had a little brother named Joey that wasn't very bright. He did things that would normally kill other people, but Joey lived to tell his tall tales. Joey had a video camera and he used it to tape himself doing stupid stunts. He would do things like run in circles around moving cars, back in their old neighborhood. But Crimsonville, Kentucky was much different than their old neighborhood, it seemed to be completely deserted, with nothing to do...except for the swamp. At first Vincent and Joey went berserk when they saw what appeared to be a lake. They pulled on their swimsuits before they even took their shorts off. They jumped off the pier, not aware of how deep the "lake" was. Joey dived in acting as though he was an expert swimmer. Yet he was only 6 years old compared to Vincent being 15. Even with the huge age difference, Joey was the better swimmer. But as soon as they jumped in they realized that this was no normal swimming pond... Vincent sank straight to the bottom, not realizing how deep the murky green water was. He struggled to see underwater, but he could hardly see anything. But then, he saw a shadow of a figure swim by...he thought he was seeing things, so he swam back to the surface. He asked Joey if he had seen anything underwater, but Joey just laughed and dove down into the swamp. Vincent couldn't help but think that he wasn't the only one living in Crimsonville. The next day, he really started getting suspicious about this strange ghost town.

2 Things really started getting suspicious in Crimsonville the next day. Vincent woke up the next morning and went to the kitchen for breakfast. He had to jump over all of the crowded boxes full of stuff to put in his new house. He went to the refrigerator and found a note on the door. Vincent read the note out loud. "Vince, Joey, we went to the store to get breakfast, be back in a couple minutes. -Signed Mom" Vincent read. Daniel hadn't seen a store anywhere since they left his old town. He wondered where they had found one. But soon Vincent started getting worried. It was 5:30 that night, and Vincent's mom and dad still hadn't returned with breakfast. Vince was starving. He decided to go take a swim. He went upstairs to his room, but he stopped when he noticed Joey's door open. He slowly opened the door the rest of the way and gasped... Joey was gone, his bed was made up perfectly, and his room was empty. Vincent shook his head and ran across the hall to his parent's room. He pushed open the door and stared at the made up bed, and completely cleared out room. Everyone was gone. He then ran downstairs and

dialed his dad's cell phone. A familiar woman's voice came onto the phone. "This number has been disconnected or is no longer in service..." the recorded message told Vince. He thought he had dialed the wrong number, but when he dialed again, the same recorded message came on. He then knew something was very wrong... Vincent hung up the phone and ran to the neighbor's house. He banged on the door, but no one came. He realized he had to call 911. He ran back into his house and picked up the phone. There was no dial tone! He clicked the phone off and picked it up again. Still no tone. He looked down at the wire, only to see that it had been cut in half... 3 Vincent had no idea what to do, so he finally decided to just go to sleep and hope they would be back the next morning. That night, Vince awoke to a banging sound. He thought it was his parents returning. But when he went to the door, he realized that it definitely wasn't them. The door was violently being pounded on non-stop. Vincent crept over to the window and looked out. A large shadow stood there slamming his shoulder into the door as hard as he could. But suddenly the shadow stopped moving and slowly turned it's head toward Vincent. Vince gasped...he could see the figure perfectly now. It was a man...but he was extremely hairy. His face was covered in thick, matted, brown hair. His eyes were yellow and they glinted in the porch light. His eyes were narrowed at Vincent angrily. His clothes were torn and dirty, but the man didn't seem to care. He stared at Vincent, and then suddenly yelled out something and ran towards Vince. Vincent screamed as the man smashed into the glass window. He didn't break it though. He yelled again and jumped off the porch and ran around the back of the house. Vince hurried to the back of the house to lock all of the doors, but then he watched the wacko just keep running. The hairy man dived into the swamp. Vince watched the water for the man to return to the surface, but he never did. Then Vincent remembered a scary book he had read years ago about Werewolves. Could that man have been a Werewolf? He asked himself. No, even if Werewolves were real, they would have to breath air, and this man never returned to the surface for air. Vincent was really worried about possibly having to live by himself in his house... near the "Werewolf". He had no idea where his parents were. He had waited two days for their return, but they never came back. He then knew what he had to do. The next day he tried to begin a search for his missing parents. But several things stood in his way. 4 Things started to get worse the next day for Vince. He woke up that morning and with hope, went to his parent's room, but they weren't home. He then trudged to Joey's room, but he also was missing. Vincent sighed and pulled on his clothes. He went downstairs and quickly ate a bowl of cereal. He then walked outside and picked up his bike. He noticed the "werewolve's" tracks in the mud, but he thought they were just from the other night. He jumped onto the bike and started pedaling down the street.

After pedaling only a short distance, a figure came running out from behind a tree. Vince didn't see the man until it was too late. The werewolf ran out in front of Vincent and he didn't have time to stop the bike. He hit the werewolf very hard. Vince flew over the handlebars head first into the concrete along with the werewolf. Vincent awoke with blood dripping down his face and leaves stuck to it. He struggled to open his eyes. He coughed out some more blood and stood up slowly, every part of his body aching. He had a pounding headache. He pulled a leaf off his face and looked around for the werewolf. The werewolf was gone...but he had left a puddle of blood staining the asphalt. He had also left a trail of bloody footprints all the way across the street and into the woods. Vincent picked up his bike, which now had a broken reflector light, and pulled it along with him into the deep wooded area. Vincent trudged into the woods and realized it had turned completely dark. The sun was blocked out with the huge pine trees that filled the woods. There was also a thick fog floating in the air. Vince had only walked a short distance when he saw a house. It was very old and deserted looking, but Vincent decided to go in anyway, if it would help him somehow find his parents and little brother. 5 Vincent slowly approached the cabin, at the same time trying not to step on any tree branches, or make any noise. He scanned the house to make sure no one was there, and that no one was hiding, watching him. He didn't see anyone or anything in particular, so he eased up the creaky steps to the front porch. When he stepped up onto the porch...the floor suddenly caved in. Vincent's leg was now stuck. He tugged on his jeans and finally a nail that had hooked on the jeans let loose. Vince climbed up out of the hole and walked inside the house. As soon as he walked in he wished he hadn't. The old house was about the same inside as it was outside. A couch lay beside the door turned over, with its cotton stuffing ripped out. There were bloody hand-prints and long scratches up and down all of the walls. A lamp was broken and lay unplugged. There was a door at the other end of the house. Vince took a deep breath and walked to the door. Vince grabbed the door handle and jiggled it, but it was locked. He looked to the left of the door and found a key sitting on a table. He picked it up and tried it in the door handle. As soon as he turned the key, the door slowly began to creak open. He walked inside. It was even more horrible than the rest of the house. Vincent began to realize that someone had definitely been murdered in that house. The bed in the middle of the room was left unmade with a imprint of a body in a deep pool of blood. Vince had to hold back from vomiting when he saw what was beside the bed. It was his father's head. It appeared to have been sitting there for days. His left eyeball hung out of its socket against his wrinkled face. His expression was of pure horror. His mouth was opened wide, almost as if screaming. He had dried blood smeared on his chin. Vincent knew that only an animal could have done this to his dad, and holding back tears he knew it had to have been the werewolf.

6 Vincent turned and ran out of the room as fast as he could. He tripped on a shoe that was lying on the floor, but he kept running. He swung the screen door open and turned to jump over the hole in the porch, but his head slammed into someone's chest. He looked up and saw the face of the werewolf. The werewolf breathed heavily with his mouth wide open. Vince stared at the sharp, bloody teeth. The werewolf suddenly reached a hand out and grabbed Vincent's shirt. With one hand, he lifted Vince up toward the roof of the house. Just as he was about to heave Vincent off of the porch, a loud gunshot echoed through the woods. The werewolf closed his eyes and screamed out in pain. He began to cough up blood as he let go of Vince. Vincent fell to the floor of the porch and watched the wolf turn and fall off of the porch with a horrible thump as he hit the ground. Seconds later, a large man holding a shotgun stepped out from behind a nearby tree. He wiped the sweat off of his forehead, and walked over to Vincent. Vincent cautiously backed up to the screen door. "No need to worry son, I just saved your life. I've been searching for that very werewolf for over six years. It looks as though I won't be looking for him anymore from now on." Vincent gulped and asked the question he had wanted to ask the first person he could find. "Thanks for saving my life Sir. Um...have you seen my mom and little brother anywhere?" Vincent asked with hope. "Well, my guess is, that werewolf that's been bothering you has em'. He also probably played a mean, but clever for a werewolf, joke on you. Follow me around back." Vincent was extremely confused, but he followed the man around the back of the house anyway. The man stopped at a small garage and used his shotgun handle to break the door lock. The door slowly creaked open and revealed a great surprise. Vince's mom, little brother, AND dad sat on the floor, tied up and gagged. But they were all alive and OK, even his dad. "See what I mean?" the man asked Vincent. Vince and the man hurried to untie his parent's and brother. When they were loose, Vincent showed his dad the head that he had found in the old house. "Yeah, the wolf made a mold of my head and painted it to look just like me, so he could try and lure you into his trap." his dad explained, "You didn't fall for it did you?" Vincent laughed and said no, somewhat unconvincingly. When they got home, everything was back to normal again, and they invited the man over that Vince now learned was his Uncle James that lived in Crimsonville. They had a big supper, with a large turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, baked beans and corn on the cob. They sat at the table talking about what had happened, and telling James about their new house. They had a great time. After they were done eating, James said goodbye and went back home. Vincent hurried up to his room to watch TV, but frowned as he realized there was a note taped to his door. It was from Uncle James. He read the note to himself:

'Hey Vince, nice seeing you, I haven't seen you since you were a baby. I thought you could use a nice house-warming gift, so I left you a present on your bed. Hope you like it. See ya again soon.' --Uncle James -Vincent smiled and turned to get his present. He walked to his bed and reached into a brown grocery bag. He pulled the gift out and stared into the dark eyes of the werewolve's decapitated head!

THE END OF “FEAR”: FULL MOON SWAMP

READ THE ENTIRE “FEAR” SERIES @ http://www.fearbooks.com/ WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY MATTHEW WATTS